Linaro 12.10 Release with Linux kernel 3.6 and Android 4.1.2

Linaro release 12.10 has recently been announced, and includes Linux Kernel 3.6.1 and Android 4.1.2.

This release provides further improvement to big.LITTLE architecture and Linux can boot on TC2 (A Test Chip with 2 Cortex A15 and 3 Cortex a7 cores) and an ARMv8 (Aarch64) OpenEmbedded community build is now available for download. Work has also be done on preparing demos for Linaro Connect (29 Oct – 02 Nov) in Copenhagen including a single ARM kernel booting on different boards.

Here are the highlights of the release:

Android
- Linaro Android 12.10 has been upgraded to 4.1.1_r6 and then to 4.1.2.
- Linaro Android builds are now shipped with improved instructions.
- AOSP Galaxy Nexus builds are available from http://android-build.linaro.org and include DS-5 support.
- Linaro Android toolchain has been updated to Linaro GCC 2012.10.
- Dalvik benchmarked against Hard-Float Open JDK and Java SE.
- Power meter improvements for LAVA automation.
- Prepared Connect demonstrations
  - benchmarking methods and how it automates benchmarks.
  - Galaxy Nexus builds.
  - Hybrid Android: an Android build with a toolchain installed, an editor to edit code and other utilities to develop on an Android box.
  - power meter, based on NI equipement.
Developer Platform
- OpenEmbedded now contains the 64-ready components for the ARMv8 bootstrap (Minimal, SDK and LAMP images published).
- Package and components for the big.LITTLE project were updated based on the requirements for the 12.10 development cycle.
- AArch64 Quantal image containing build-essential is now available (with instructions at https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/DevPlatform/CrossCompile/arm64bootstrap)
- Linux Linaro tree updated with the latest kernel development topics provided by Linaro, and also against the final v3.6 upstream release.
  - Linux Linaro, based on linux-linaro-core-tracking tree (llct-20121012.0 tag)
    - based on v3.6
    - includes 3.6.1 stable release
    - config fragments (config-core-tracking topic)
    - emmc patches from Kernel WG
    - updated linaro-android-3.6-jstultz-rebase topic
    - gator version 5.11
    - ubuntu-sauce-3.6
    - big-LITTLE-MP version 10
    - updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT
    - updated Origen patches from Samsung LT
    - updated Android kernel config for Snowball from STE LT
  - Linux Linaro tracking, v3.4 based
    - updated tilt-3.4 topic from TI LT; now includes the 3.4.14 stable release
Infrastructure
- Improved Linaro image tools validation. A CI has been set up to detect regressions and ensure older released images can always be generated.
- Improve instructions provided on releases.linaro.org, snapshots.linaro.org and android-build.linaro.org. As an example, see http://releases.linaro.org/12.10/android/vexpress
Kernel
- Continue work on consolidation/cleanup for single zImage
  - Converted clock lookups for Ux500 (http://marc.info/?l=linux-arm-kernel&m=135091433920465&w=2)
  - Converting Ux500 to SPARSE_IRQ (http://marc.info/?l=linux-arm-kernel&m=135058075015142&w=2)
  - Converted Exynos to common clock framework (http://marc.info/?l=linux-arm-kernel&m=134963007028275&w=2)
Power Management
- v10 of the b.L MP patchset was integrated into LLCT (linux-linaro-core-tracking). It contains:
  - updated versions of the following patchsets: PMU, load tracking, task placement
Toolchain
- Linaro GCC 4.7 2012.10, updated to GCC 4.7.2+svn191881
  - Improve performance by using VLD1 instead of VLDM for NEON quad loads.
  - LP: #1053348: binary files are not merged from the FSF branches – Fixed.
- Linaro GCC 4.6 2012.10, updates to 4.6.3+svn191880.
  - LP: #1029454 cselim tree optimizer generates incorrect code – Fixed.
- Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2012.10, updated to latest Linaro GCC 4.7 2012.10
LAVA
- Add a new mechanism to test Android, Ubuntu, and OpenEmbedded images.
- Support for testing ARMv8 Foundation Models.
- New router for the Validation lab deployed.
- WiFi access point is now connected to the internet and is used in our daily tests.
big.LITTLE System
- Completed TC2 (TestChip2 – A big.LITTLE core with 2 Cortex A15 and 3 Cortex a7 processors) support. TC2 now boots with the latest IKS (In-Kernel Switcher) tree
- Added five new test cases to handle simultaneous thread switching
- Few important bugs were fixed: Switcher Thumb-2 bug, Switcher deadlock issue when working on the memblock_steal(), vlock remaining locked under certain conditions.
- Team changed focus to run benchmarks with the latest IKS on TC2 to find optimization opportunities.

Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1210/Release for a list of known issues and further release details about the LEB, Android, Kernel, Graphics, Landing Team, Platform, Power management and Toolchain (GCC / Qemu) components.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.